Fruit Feeders

• Birds such as grouse, turkey and quail feed on Prunus fruit. A variety of mammals such as deer, opossums and raccoons also browse on the trees. Plum curculios are grayish-brown or black snout beetles. They lay their eggs inside stone fruits, and the developing larvae feed inside the fruit. Cherry fruit flies are blackish flies with yellowish heads. They are just slightly smaller than average houseflies. They lay their eggs inside cherry fruits, and the maggots feed inside the fruit.
  
  

Foliage and Fruit Feeders

• Green June beetles are inch-long beetles with yellow and green coloring. They feed on the foliage and fruit, often causing serious damage to emerging fruit crops. The Japanese beetle Popillia japonica, a metallic-green insect with bronze wing covers, feeds on Prunus foliage by stripping the soft tissues between the leaf veins, leaving the foliage with a skeletonized or lacelike appearance. They also chew large holes out of stone fruits. Caterpillars and leafrollers also feed on Prunus foliage.
  
  

Sap-Sucking Pests

• Aphids are pear-shaped, soft-bodied insects with tubelike growths called cornicles that extend from their back ends. They feed on the undersides of Prunus leaves by attaching piercing and sucking mouthparts to the foliage and draining out plant juices. Infested plants may have distorted or curled leaves, and leaves may fall from the plant. Mites are tiny arthropods that are too small to see without magnification. They create yellow, stippled spots on leaves and cause early fruit drop. Scale insects have rounded or oval-shaped waxy coverings that protect their soft bodies. They kill branches and weaken trees.
  
  

Borers

• Peach tree borers are serious pests of Prunus trees. These larval moths tunnel below the bark and feed on the sapwood. Infested trees may exude a gummy residue near the soil line. Trees lose their vigor and often die. American plum borers are the larvae of moths. They feed on the cambium, which is the part of the wood that carries nutrients from the roots to the branches. Like peach tree borers, they can eventually cause tree death. Peach twig borers burrow into early twig growth. Twigs fail to develop properly and often die.